The screen printing process has, for many years, provided a variety of decorative and often amusing inked patterns and designs upon cloth items such as scarves, shirts, banners and the ever popular T-shirts. Other processes, such as spray painting generally using stencils or the like, have provided some worthwhile results. However, the general trend within the clothing industry finds that silk-screening processes are superior in that they provide more long lasting ink patterns and are more economical to utilize. Silk-screening processes and apparatus range from the extremely complex, high speed mass production units which produce inked patterns upon clothing or the like at extremely high production rates and high numbers of duplicate items using a common pattern to the more simple custom silk-screening processes. The latter silk-screening processes often provide for individualized silk-screening which facilitates custom design and often hand drawn patterns to be silk-screened.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,282,207 issued to Plymale sets forth a SCREEN PRINTING IN WHICH SCREEN MEMBERS ARE GIVEN RELATIVE MOVEMENT TO CONTROL INK FLOW in which a pair of multiapertured or foraminous screens are positionable in either aligned or overlapping positions to provide controllable screen porosity or complete imperviousness to the screening ink within the process. The result is a screening process in which an electrical control signal is able to open and close the screen members and control the transfer of ink to the screening medium.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,947,744 issued to Petersen sets forth SCREEN PRINTING METHOD in which a flat article upon which printing is to be formed is positioned upon a printing table and secured by vacuum. A screen having a stencil supporting printing ink on its upper surface is lowered against the article afterwhich a squeegee is scraped over the upper surface of the stencil to force ink through the screen and onto the article. Thereafter, the stencil is lifted. An ionizing electrode energized by a direct current voltage is moved in association with the squeegee to improve the printing process.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,527,163 issued to Bean sets forth a SILK SCREEN MASTER in which a xerographic toner image is transferred to a surface of a screen substrate having interstitial spaces which have been filled with a resinous fiber material. The filler and toner material are selected such that each is soluble in a different solution. Following fusion of the toner image to the screen, the resinous filler material is selectively removed to produce a stencil master.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,532,052 issued to Erickson sets forth SILK SCREEN MAKING in which a silk screen stencil is prepared by engaging the screen cloth with a dry layer of photosensitizable colloid carried on a backing member and applying a liquid photosensitized emulsion to the screen cloth to fill the meshes in the screen cloth and simultaneously sensitize the colloid layer and join it to the silk screen. Following the drying process, the backing is removed to provide a complete stencil.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,538,847 issued to Heilman sets forth a METHOD OF MAKING A SCREEN STENCIL in which a stencil is formed in a sheet of metal and secured to a silk screen coated with a photoresist emulsion. The emulsion serves as the bonding agent. The stencil is applied to the screen while the emulsion is wet and pressure is applied until the emulsion dries. The emulsion is then removed in the areas corresponding to the stencil openings.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,852,483 issued to Bussard sets forth a KIT FOR INDIVIDUALIZED SILK SCREEN PRINTING intended for use in printing on T-shirts and the like. The kit includes a carrier loaded with a row of overlapping stencils and a mask for shielding around a printed area.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,477,557 issued to Rauch sets forth a STENCIL MAKING AND UTILIZATION METHODS, APPARATUS AND ARTICLES for producing a desired design by selective hardening of first and second individually soluble substances being hardenable in add mixture in a foraminous stencil blank which is initially impregnated with the first substance. The second substance is stored separately from the stencil blank in a device such as a pen. The second substance is thereafter selectively applied in the form of the desired design to the impregnated stencil blank for add mixture with the first substance immediately prior to a desired selective hardening of the add mixed first and second substances to render part of the stencil imperforate. The stencil is also exposed to dissolution of any applied first and second substances outside of the latter part for rendering the stencil perforate outside of that part.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,550,660 issued to Sato, et al. sets forth a STENCIL which provides a pattern wise perforated stencil easily made by handwriting or the like. The stencil is made up of a porous support and a masking film formed thereon. The masking film is made of a water soluble polymer having tertiary amino groups. The pattern is applied to the stencil using an instrument for imparting a dissolving solution in the desired pattern to the film and screen. The film is dissolved selectively in the pattern applied producing screens which are perforate or pervious to the inking material within the desired pattern.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,569,283 issued to Sato, et al. sets forth a STENCIL MATERIAL SET AND STENCIL DUPLICATOR SET which provides an operative mechanism for use with the screens produced in the above-mentioned Sato, et al. patent (U.S. Pat. No. 4,550,660).
U.S. Pat. No. 4,023,524 issued to Goldfarb, et al. sets forth a TOY SPRAY PAINTING SYSTEM which provides a plurality of interchangeable stencils and a frame support therefor.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,961,377 issued to Bando, et al. sets forth a THERMAL STENCIL MASTER SHEET AND ADHESIVE THEREFOR for stencil printing using a thermoplastic synthetic resin film which is perforatable with heat together with a porous substrate which is substantially unchanged by heat.
While the foregoing described prior art devices have achieved varying degrees of success in improving the screen printing process and art, they have devoted little, if any, attention to providing user friendly conveniently operated silk printing kits which are suitable for use by younger children. There remains, therefore, a continuing need in the art for screen printing kits which are capable of use by younger children and which stimulate the creative process experienced by younger children in the screen printing activity.